One thing I must protest! Protest fiercely. I might even break a window over it. It was said in your talk, and agreed to, that MacDonald did not show up, at least not as obviously in G.K. Chesterton's work as he is in Lewis's and Tolkien's. Now I might be convinced, I'm not yet, that there are fewer obvious MacDonald moments in Chesterton than in Lewis or Tolkien, but that would only be because they had so many. My favorite Tolkien example is the glimpse Sam and Frodo catch of the Elves heading into the West. It came right out of "The Highlander's Last Song". But back to Chesterton. I point you to the second opening scene in "The Ball and the Cross". The one where the wild highland lad comes down to the city to the first time and flings himself against the self satisfied atheist Scotsman. From the pure art of it what could be more MacDonald? But to be more on the nose, an excerpt. “He was in name and stock a Highlander of the Macdonalds; but his family took, as was common in such cases, the name of a subordinate sept as a surname, and for all the purposes which could be answered in London, he called himself Evan MacIan.” Not to mention the whole otherworldly imagery of the priest descending from the sky-ship. Seriously though, thanks for uploading this. I found it very interesting.
On behalf of Crystal Downing: “Actually, Byron intended the protagonist in his epic satiric poem to be pronounced “Don Jew-an.” As any literary scholar will confirm, scansion establishes a trochaic rhythm to the last name in the 1819 text. This reflects British pronunciation trends and is part of Byron’s satirizing of the famous character.”
This is a great discussion, thank you. I very much appreciated this anthology from Lewis of MacDonald's writing as well.
George MacDonald was a Congregationalist.... never heard a Calvinist but perhaps and will be glad to hear.
Congregationalists are Calvinist
Such good content here, thank you!
One thing I must protest! Protest fiercely. I might even break a window over it.
It was said in your talk, and agreed to, that MacDonald did not show up, at least not as obviously in G.K. Chesterton's work as he is in Lewis's and Tolkien's. Now I might be convinced, I'm not yet, that there are fewer obvious MacDonald moments in Chesterton than in Lewis or Tolkien, but that would only be because they had so many. My favorite Tolkien example is the glimpse Sam and Frodo catch of the Elves heading into the West. It came right out of "The Highlander's Last Song".
But back to Chesterton. I point you to the second opening scene in "The Ball and the Cross". The one where the wild highland lad comes down to the city to the first time and flings himself against the self satisfied atheist Scotsman. From the pure art of it what could be more MacDonald?
But to be more on the nose, an excerpt.
“He was in name and stock a Highlander of the Macdonalds; but his family took, as was common in such cases, the name of a subordinate sept as a surname, and for all the purposes which could be answered in London, he called himself Evan MacIan.”
Not to mention the whole otherworldly imagery of the priest descending from the sky-ship.
Seriously though, thanks for uploading this. I found it very interesting.
O.K. @6:10 they get it right.
@1:50 Don JEWan?? Really? I thought these people were suposed to some kinds of literary experts!
On behalf of Crystal Downing: “Actually, Byron intended the protagonist in his epic satiric poem to be pronounced “Don Jew-an.” As any literary scholar will confirm, scansion establishes a trochaic rhythm to the last name in the 1819 text. This reflects British pronunciation trends and is part of Byron’s satirizing of the famous character.”
The bible can only be understood with the Holy Spirit.
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